Supplies enter Gaza as Livni calls for deterrence

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel allowed supplies into the Gaza Strip as its foreign minister said Palestinian rockets should be met with something stronger than a blockade.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak ordered the border crossings between Israel and the Gaza Strip opened Tuesday to allow 70 trucks of food and medical supplies, as well as cooking gas, into the terrorist Hamas-controlled territory. International journalists also were allowed to enter.

Following the lifting of the blockade, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told a Tel Aviv University conference that blockading Gaza was not an effective deterrent to Palestinian gunfire and that a military response to every rocket was warranted.

"We are living in an area where image has meaning, and when the image is weakened, that harms Israel’s deterrence capability," Livni said.